Modern video encoders typically compress video data for transmission to increase the amount of video-related information able to be conveyed in a given communication bandwidth. The resulting encoded video signal can then be transmitted to a receiver having a suitable video decoder capable of decompressing and/or otherwise decoding the video signal for display on an appropriate display device. Some video encoders are able to implement several different types of video encoding techniques, one or more of which may also have different encoding modes. For example, some video encoders can implement both intra-frame encoding, in which a pixel block of a given video frame is encoded using pixels from one or more neighboring blocks of the same frame as predictors, and inter-frame encoding, in which a pixel block of a given frame is encoded using pixels from one or more different frames as predictors. Additionally, one or both of the intra-frame and inter-frame encoding techniques employed by the video encoder may have different encoding modes corresponding to, for example, the type of block partitioning (e.g., partitioning into blocks of 16×16 pixels, 8×8 pixels, 4×4 pixels, etc.) employed by the particular encoding technique, the direction (e.g., up, left, etc.) from which pixel predictors are chosen relative to the given block to be encoded, etc. A video encoder employing difference types of encoding techniques having different modes may compute distortion metrics associated with the different techniques/modes to thereby permit selection of a particular encoding technique/mode using expected distortion as a selection criterion.
The material disclosed herein is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the accompanying figures. For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Furthermore, wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts, elements, etc.